Mahony the very rot at core of Church

In my time, I have met killers, swindlers, perverts, corrupt politicians and all manner of toads. How ironic I met one of the worst on an altar.

Michael Fitzgerald

In my time, I have met killers, swindlers, perverts, corrupt politicians and all manner of toads. How ironic I met one of the worst on an altar.

I was a Catholic student and altar boy who served high Mass in Annunciation Cathedral with then-Bishop Roger Mahony. Oh, the majesty! The spiritual authority!

Mahony, retired head of the Diocese of Los Angeles, was stripped of any administrative and public church duties last week. Newly released Catholic sex abuse files show His Excellency covered for molesters and lied like a rug.

Mahony was bishop of Stockton from 1980 to 1985. Years during which omnivorous hyenas such as Father Oliver O'Grady were using Stockton diocese children for sex toys.

When foot-dragging lay authorities finally investigated O'Grady, wide-eyed Mahony said he had no idea O'Grady was a pedophile - though the diocese had a sub secreto confidential personnel file on him as thick as a phone book.

Mahony knew. He knew O'Grady had molested children in Lodi. So he transferred him to Presentation Parish in Stockton. He turned that abomination loose here.

In 1984, O'Grady confessed to his counselor that he'd had sex with yet another child (in reality, he was molesting a host of others with a freakish appetite). The counselor, doing what Mahony lacked the moral fiber to do, turned him in.

Stockton police investigated. They had the goods on O'Grady. But the genuflecting saps dropped the case after Mahony promised to keep O'Grady away from children.

So Mahony transferred O'Grady to San Andreas. No children there, right?

Just as O'Grady's outrages were becoming undeniable, Mahony was promoted to bishop of Los Angeles. He got away. His last order of business was to come back for O'Grady's trial in Stockton and lie on the stand.

And thus the Mahony playbook. The L.A. files show personnel files on 122 priests accused of molesting children.

They show that far from being passive toward this evil, Mahony conspired with diocese administrators and lawyers to keep molesters away from police.

For instance, sending them to counseling was not an option. Doing so might stop priests from preying on children, true. But counselors, as Mahony knew from Stockton, take their mandatory reporting duties seriously.

On the contrary. For his signal service to the church, he was elevated to cardinal. Until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75, he remained one of the most powerful men in the church. He was unbelievably lucky. I seriously entertained the concern that the church would make him pope.

But now, at long last, the Teflon has peeled off. Mahony stands exposed for what he is: the rot at the core of the Roman Catholic Church.

The man who used "prayer and Eucharistic adoration and penance" instead of taking morally urgent action enabled hordes of evil sickos to feast on a banquet of babes.

Documents show he worked with other church officials to shield at least 14 molester priests. To spin away scandals. And to keep parishioners and victims in the dark.

But now, he is reviled. On top of sacking him, his successor, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez said last week, "The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil."

Even O'Grady denounced Mahony.

In the documentary "Deliver Us From Evil," the moral vacuum himself said, "I should have been removed and attended to. And (Mahony) should then have followed up and tended to the people that I had harmed. I would have liked if he had done that."

How many stunted lives resulted from Mahony's conduct? How many kids were robbed of their innocence? How many prematurely sexualized children molested others?

How many grew up with psychological time bombs? How many molested their children, or others, or forged links in a vast, miserable chain of pathology and victimhood?

How many divorces resulted? How many ruined careers? How many families turned away from the church? Away from Jesus? How many people were destroyed by shame and spiritual desolation?

How many suicides, cardinal?

And all the time, he was up in the pulpit, piously warning the faithful not to have sex outside of marriage. What exquisitely perfect hypocrisy.

Mahony, as much as anyone living, has helped sap the Roman Catholic Church of its moral authority. He'll probably cost it a billion dollars before the civil trials are through.

Money that could have fed the hungry or alleviated other suffering, or built the ministry, instead will go to victims and lawyers. It's a catastrophe.

Appallingly, Mahony remains "in good standing" in the church. He is neither locked up nor defrocked. He is free to conduct Mass ... if there's anyone left in the pews.